During her time spent in New York City, within the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston created works which in return made her a focal point with the movement. Hurston wrote many works and published a handful of articles, short stories, her novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine and “Spunk”, an anthology of written pieces concentrating on African and African American literature and art.
Hurston dedicated herself to studying black culture and folklore. She traveled many places including Florida, Jamaica, and Haiti. From her travels and the research she did while visiting these places, she published a collection of black southern folklore called Mules and Men. It was shortly after Mules and Men, that Hurston wrote her most well known and most celebrated novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Now considered her masterwork and part of the literary canon, Their Eyes Were Watching God was not received well by the African American community when it was published in 1937 and instead went up against some resistance from other leading authors within the movement. Ralph Ellison said the book contained a ‘blight of calculated burlesque.” and Alain Locke wrote ‘when will the Negro novelist of maturity, who knows how to tell a story convincingly—which is Miss Hurston’s cradle gift, come to grips with motive fiction and social document fiction?’ (Gates and Appiah)
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There were a couple individuals who had more positive things to say about Hurston’s novel, such as Otis Ferguson who complimented the depiction of ‘Negro life in its naturally creative and unselfconscious grace’ and Lucille Tompkins who wrote ‘It is about Negroes… but really it is about every one, or at least every one who isn’t so civilized that he has lost the capacity for glory.’ (Gates and Appiah).
The novel, which seemed to be born inside of Hurston’s own resistance of the restrictive standards of the Harlem Renaissance put in place by the Uplift agenda, is in her own words, about her interest in individuals. She was quoted saying “I have ceased to think in terms of race; I think only in terms of individuals” (Zora Neale Hurston: Wikipedia). Even though during its time the novel was a subject of controversy, Zora Neale Hurston’s work was rediscovered through the development of Black Studies in the 1970s and 1980s along with the wave of Black feminism that created a space enabling the study of Hurston.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that “narrates Janie Crawford’s ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny” (Their Eyes Were Watching God: NEA). The novel has been described as “an African American feminist classic” (Their Eyes Were Watching God: NEA) and “one African American woman’s quest for self-definition and self-discovery” (Vickers).
While these descriptions promote an important aspect of the renewed interested in Hurston, the novel, in particular, the themes and structure establish Hurston’s status as one of the foremost female writers of the time. The themes of the novel include language as a tool of self expression and as a weapon/means of control, gender roles, and a struggle between relationships and independence. The novel is plentiful in symbolism and folklore and journey motifs.
Beginning with the theme of language, the novel contains a narrative structure that is unique in how it divides the text between narration and vernacular of the rural Southern black communities. The use of language in the novel illustrates Janie’s journey to find her voice. Janie’s journey consists of three marriages, the first to Logan Killicks, second to Jody Starks, and third to Tea Cake.
It’s through these relationships that she comes to find her voice, specifically while married to Starks. Starks sense of self depends on his ability to exert power over others, it’s because of this value that he is uninterested in Janie and sees her only as a means to get what he wants. Among other things, Starks squelches Janie’s speech and doesn’t allow her to be a part of conversations when in public. From her hatred for Starks, Janie eventually comes to find her voice and independence when she rebels against him and “…figuratively emasculates him in front of his ‘big talk’ cronies” (Vickers).
He has no way to retaliate since she destroyed his unstable sense of self and no longer wants to live. As Janie’s journey continues and she comes closer to her dream, “…she becomes more articulate, ultimately adopting the role of storyteller, becoming a creator/artist” (Vickers). It’s this role that she takes up and the storytelling that happens on the porch of Starks store and throughout the novel, that illustrates the oral tradition of African American history.
Next, are the themes of gender roles and the struggle between relationships and independence, which can be noticed within the relationships between women and men, the value of women in these relationships, and the liberation of women. Janie’s first two husbands wanted her to be silent and domestic. Starks, in particular, did not allow her to speak or engage in talk on the porch; he says ‘…Muh wife don’t know nothin’ bout no speech-makin’….She’s uh woman and her place is in de home’ (Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God).
In her relationship with Tea Cake there is more of an equal treatment, but he still shows his “possession” of her by beating her. Throughout her three marriages, Janie was made to work and do physical labor while also being subjected to physical abuse. The possessiveness of her husbands doesn’t allow Janie to come into her own independent identity. It’s not until after the death of Tea Cake that she finds her independence by overcoming the expected female roles and returns to Eatonville as a liberated black woman.
